Drie kortverhale van Maarten ’t Hart - Literêr-esteties en lewensbeskoulik bekyk (I)

The autobiographical manner of presentation of Maarten 't Hart’s stories has the consequence that the narrative distance is particularly small - so that the effect on the reader is greater, and he is strongly addressed by the message of each story. This gives rise to the fact that the relevant stories can be evaluated not only on the bais of the literary aesthetic qualities, but also on the basis of lifeview. The three stories, De zaterdagvliegers, Ouderlingenbezoek and De wine nacht consistently reveal a sustained line of emotional tension, and style and structural means are well applied to support the thematic concerns. In De witte nacht especially an exceptional measure of textural density is obtained and the story reveals a close coherence. In the ethical sense the existential sense of life which is revealed by the stories as well as the one-sided characterisation of the representatives of the Christian faith is obtrusive. These two characteristics of his work reveal aparticular awareness of the spirit of the time in which ’t Hart is caught and explains to some extent why he is one of the most widely-read Dutch authors since 1945.